The U-18 World Hockey Championships are into semi-final stages over in Russia.
The Russians were in tough on home soil in the city of Chelyabinsk as they faced as stacked American team in the quarters that featured Jack Hughes, the early consensus No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
A four-goal third period propelled Team USA to a 5-1 win over the Russians, and will now play the Czech Republic on Saturday morning at 10:30am ET, a game you can watch on TSN.
But the biggest takeaway was what happened following after two countries finished up the game when the “Star Spangled Banner” was distorted with the Slovakian anthem.
Instead of playing the American anthem, the Russians decided to play the Slovakian one other top, before stopping both. Here’s the full clip vid:
Was this a major screw-up, or was the Russians trying to troll the US team? If it’s the latter, then that’s a little disrespectful.
At least the Americans were good spirits about to and continued to belt out the words. Talk about an awkward moment.
